Business Environment Profiles - United States
Published: 11 July 2024
Federal funding for homeland security
79 $ billion
-1.9 %
The total annual budget outlays by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) represent federal funding for homeland security. The department's stated goal is to prepare for, prevent and respond to domestic emergencies, particularly terrorism. In addition, the department oversees federal agencies dealing with transportation security, customs, immigration, citizenship and border security, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which deals with the federal response to domestic natural disasters. Data presented prior to the DHS' inception in 2002 represent the combined funding of agencies that would later be brought under DHS control. Data and projections are sourced from The White House's Office of Management and Budget. Figures are presented in constant 2017 dollars.
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Historically, federal funding for the DHS has been volatile yet linked to specific events. Hurricane Katrina was the most significant effect on DHS funding since its creation. In response to the devastation affecting the Gulf Coast caused by the hurricane, expenses from FEMA increased, pushing the total department expenses to jump from $31.4 billion in 2004 (the year before the storm) to $76.6 billion in 2006 (the year following the storm, with intensive recovery efforts continuing). Homeland security funding slumped 44.8% in 2007 as federal support for the Gulf Coast recovery ended.
Funding rose in 2008 and 2009, mainly from US Customs & Border Protection expansions and the US Immigration & Customs Enforcement. The department experienced large cuts in 2010 as the federal government looked to cut spending in the wake of the recession the previous two years, providing less tax revenue. However, because of the expanded presence of the Transportation Security Administration and revised expansions in border protections in response to heightened levels of violence in northern Mexico, funding rallied strongly in 2013 before declining in both 2014 and 2015. At this time, cuts to homeland security, mainly to the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI), caused the total annual budget outlays by the DHS to eventually drop.
Heightened terrorism threats spurred a climb in DHS funding between 2016 and 2018. Back in 2018, a decision was made by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to expand funding by 32.4%. Efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, along with the ongoing effort to protect from the aforementioned terrorist threats, necessitate an expansion in funding. However, on the onset of a more divided Congress in 2019 following the 2018 midterms, appropriations granted to the DHS remained more subject to scrutiny, curtailing additional funding 2019 with a 19.0% incline. But following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, funding went up again amid the National Emergency around the virus, which resulted in the Trump Administration signing off on Title 42, an executive order that empowers the Border Patrol to restrict access from migrants entering the country in the period. With the executive order matched with the emergency at the time, funding for homeland security shot up a substantial 61.2% in the year.
However, funding stumped in 2021 following revisions to the budgetary needs of the agency following the pandemic, while a new administration that was sworn in also influenced the outlays of the department in contrast with the previous administration's different priorities. These different factors contributed to a enlarged slip in funding in 2022 with the passing of the pandemic, which faded the need for additional emergency funding to handle pandemic-related concerns. Funding, however scaled up in 2023 under the need for more support to handle immigration-related matters following the expiration of Title 42 as this, along with shifting priorities of the administration with the need to handle these matters along with various issues that impact many states like natural disasters had readjusted how much this agency needs to handle these concerns especially with the department getting more scrutinized as of late from various sides of the political spectrum amid their handling of multiple issues that it was tasked with handling. Such matters are set to influence funding to scale up in 2024, with the need to handle such issues still being a factor that will prop funding up. However, funding allocated into homeland security is also set to scale down in 2025 by a significant amount as the need for more funding is set to change as the potential for electoral shakeups in the legislative body will shape how much funding they exactly will get despite matters like immigration becoming a significant concern for many in Congress, the changing ways in how the government handles such matters now as they get scrutinized for doing so will also influence how much spending will be allocated in the period.
The DHS operates some of the government's most politically controversial functions, like domestic...
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